The actors braved a cold evening in the British capital for twin screenings at the famed Odeon and Empire cinemas.

LONDON -- Crowds gathered despite freezing temperatures Wednesday evening in the British capital for the world premiere of Les Miserables, the blockbuster musical from Oscar winning director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech).

The movie unspooled across two of London's main cinemas, the Odeon and the Empire, both on Leicester Square.

Working Title co-chairman Eric Fellner, alongside the production banner's co-chief Tim Bevan, and Debra Hayward, came to the stage to kick off the evening.

Fellner, making a rare appearance in public after a lengthy illness, thanked Bevan for stepping in and making all the hard early decisions on the film. Fellner also gave a big shout out to universal, working title's partners for 13 years.

Fellner then brought producer Cameron Mackintosh to the stage at the Empire Leicester Square.

Mackintosh said, as a film virgin, he couldn't hope for a kinder, gentler partnership than the one he'd had with Working Title as an intro to the world of movie-making.

Mackintosh brought Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Herbert Kretzmer, the musical's collaborators, to the stage before introducing Hooper to a round of applause.

Hooper said it was a childhood dream to have the film make its world bow at the Empire, a cinema "he'd dreamed as a child about," having visited it as an moviegoer in his youth.